Purely for the sake of discussion would there be any value in taking a harnessed bird around the neighborhood and actively showing them what a birdfeeder/birdbath is?

This would seem to be a good insurance policy. Besides if they're drawn to those neighbors who feed wild birds, there's a shortlist for places to look. Besides that, I would hope that it might improve the parrot's chances long enough to find them.

The most obvious drawback that I immediately think of is: disease. I know that House Finches often have conjunctivitis and other diseases.

in australia there are magpies ravens falcons harriers goshawks and eagles and cats and dogs that kill birds and people spray their trees so their is not a good chance of survival but my corella charlie who flew away three years ago has been sighted

kikikakariki wrote:in australia there are magpies ravens falcons harriers goshawks and eagles and cats and dogs that kill birds and people spray their trees so their is not a good chance of survival but my corella charlie who flew away three years ago has been sighted

That just may be a good thing if there is a chance of recovery. I take it that Corellas are not native to the area in which you live, is that right?

I have experienced the feeling of a bird flying away from our home. My conure flew out the door one evening and was gone in the blink of an eye. My family and I searched for hours. Our conure (jeff) was found 3 days later about 5 miles away. We had posted on facebook and somebody replied fo us that they had found our baby! The main thing to do when your bird flys from home is to not lose hope, you will find your bird. After 2-3 days your bird will fly down to seek human contact for food if he/she is tamed well. Post your lost bird pictures on all social media, put flyers up in your neighborhood and neighboring towns. And most importantly stay positive.

The biggest threat to a non-wild bird here in the UK is probably crows/rooks/magpies because they are far more prevalent and widespread than sparrowhawks or peregrines. As soon as they see a bird that doesn't act normally they will mob it to death or at the very least chase it well out of their territory - I am speaking from falconry experience as my hawk was too big for them to intimidate but they were merciless in their attempts whilst she was still young and inexperienced. But this does have the tremendous upside that they make such a huge noise and tend to fly high and dive in a very eye catching way that if you are quick you can use them to trace the exact location of a lost bird.

We have wild parrots in some parts of the UK that survive all year and breed (over 50k apparently), it is not necessarily the colour or species of bird that will make it a target as much as its behaviour. Yes albinos etc become a target, but so would a hand or cage reared crow if you released it because it doesn't know how to behave and predators instinctively pick up on even the smallest signs of weakness and will become more brazen when they are confident they will get a successful hunt - hence why the usually very timid hawks/falcons will swoop within feet of a human to take a completely unaware parrot.